Figure 1.
Insulin stimulates glucose transport and glycogen synthesis in skeletal muscle. Insulin stimulates the activation of a signaling cascade in skeletal muscle, which includes some of the proteins mentioned in the text. Insulin stimulates increased glucose uptake by skeletal muscle and activates glycogen synthase, the rate-limiting enzyme for the production of glycogen from intracellular glucose. Together, these actions of insulin contribute to increased glycogen accumulation. There is a growing body of evidence that the accumulation of lipid intermediates (such as diacylglycerols, ceramides, and long-chain fatty acyl coenzyme A molecules) attenuates the insulin signal, leading to glucose transport.